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Friday, January 31, 2014

E's baby muffin stash is near gone, so we made "Baby Banana Bread Biscuits" this morning. These biscuits are so good that I need to keep myself from eating them! I had been buying E the Gerber Graduates® Lil' Biscuits and he really liked them. Then I thought why not make homemade biscuits that are less preservative-filled and don't cost $2.00 for 18 biscuits?

Now, really, does baking count as cross-training?... I'm kidding, a little ;) E has been a stubborn boy today and refused to go down for his morning nap. Working out with E awake is possible, but usually a bit messy. He is a trouble magnet! I'm going to do a 4-mile hill run and a strength circuit this afternoon. Today it is 2°F - ABOVE ZERO!!! - and sunny. Maybe I will wait until Leo is home and run outside. I can't help but dream of running outside with E in the jogging stroller again. I really miss that! And sun... fresh air... and stuff.

If you exercise, when do you fit it into your day?

Here are a few pictures and the recipe for E's new biscuits:

Baby Banana Bread Biscuits

1 banana

1/4 cup butter

1 egg

3/4 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

2 cups infant cereal

3 Tablespoons milk

Preheat oven to 375°F. Break the banana into little chunks and place in mixing bowl with butter. Microwave for 1 minute, or until butter has melted. Mash banana and mix with butter until smooth. Add egg and milk and mix. Add dry ingredients and mix together. Roll into little biscuits and place on a greased baking sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes.

Allow to cool before feeding to baby (or eating them yourself!). Biscuits can be a choking hazard for babies. Break the biscuits into little pieces, if necessary, and keep an eye on baby while they are eating.

E is such a great helper while I bake. Don't tell Old McDonald his animals are soon to be eaten.

Leo and I were trying to do a workout DVD yesterday and E thought he should join us. He's in love with my 10-lb. dumbbells. I've told him repeatedly they aren't teething toys :)

Do you ever eat your baby's food? Clearly I have a problem with that...

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

After last week's speed interval workout, I'm being honest with myself and sometimes the truth just hurts. My confession? My speed workouts have been not so good (or near nonexistent). Speed work never really returned to my exercise routine after being pregnant. Cutting intensity while preggo running was very important for me, but now I have no excuse!

Speed work and I have a love/hate relationship. I played tennis in college and sprinting was my absolute favorite (and I thought you had to be crazy to run a 5k). Then, after I discovered the amazing world of long distance running, speed work turned from a love to more of a nemesis. There are many very fast marathoners, but I feel like speed work has taken a back seat for me personally. Here are a few ways I'm trying to speed up my pace:

How To Speed Up

Up Your Cadence The "ideal cadence" is said to be 90 steps per minute. While doing an easy run on the treadmill today, I was counting my steps to make sure I was hitting at least the 30 steps per 20 seconds mark. No matter if you are running 5-minute-mile pace or 12-minute-mile, cadence is key.

Try the Treadmill The treadmill, a.k.a. my accountability partner, has been a huge help with hitting specific paces because it keeps me honest! Because everyone has only 24 hours in the day, it is important to make your workouts count. Stay focused! My goal is to fit in at least 3 key runs per week: speed work, hill training, and long run. If I can fit in an easy run or two, they better be easy! Checkout the McMillan Running Calculator to find your training paces.

Weekly PlyometricsI'm including plyometrics, or explosive exercises, in my strength training once a week. The CrossFit-like workouts I've been doing at home include a variety of explosive moves like double unders and burpees.

Strength Training Not every runner does strength training, but I need to. Strength training helps me to prevent injuries and keeps me from burning out on running. I like the variety and my inner sport physiology geek likes to study different exercises :) You can find some of my workout circuits here.

Hill TrainingHills are awesome because they give you a high intensity workout but are less stressful for your joints than flat speed training. I live in a land that is as flat as a pancake, so, once again, the treadmill is my best friend for hill training. P.S. If you're training for Boston Marathon, it may be wise to focus on downhill training, too. Long downhills actually did more damage to my quads than the uphills did!

The Easy Run: one of the hardest runs for me to do.
It takes a lot of self control to run at my "easy" training pace of 8:15 - 9:18 per mile! Running "easy runs" too fast does more harm than good and is really just junk mileage. My thought on easy runs is either run the correct pace or don't run at all that day.

The Past Week in Pictures

We enjoyed another blizzard-filled road trip this weekend. What a winter it has been! Blizzards make my stomach sick so I do my best not to watch the road (Leo was driving!). Just pray a whole lot and take pictures now and then :)

We visited the nearby mall in between seminars and found that E does NOT want to be a cowboy when he grows up!

And my favorite devotional ever; God knew I needed to read this. When people ask me what I do, I will most definitely say I am a mother first and not apologize for it!

What workout challenges you the most? What has God been teaching you this week?

Saturday, January 25, 2014

E is going to be a year old soon and I can't believe how fast the time flies and how drastically our family has changed since March 2013. Honestly, I don't even feel like the same person. That Gretchen Rubin quote really is true “The days are long, but the years are short”.

Looking back to those first few weeks after E's birth, I've thought of some things I wish I would have known. If I were able to go back in time, these are a few tips I would have shared with myself as a brand new first-time mom...

Listen to Your Body

This applies before you're pregnant, while you're pregnant, and after baby is born. You know your body best!

At 33.5 weeks pregnant, I was feeling more cramping and back pain than usual while at work. The feeling was more of discomfort; definitely not excruciating pain. A coworker told me I probably just had Braxton Hicks contractions and would be fine. I listened to my body instead and stopped in to Labor & Delivery before heading to the gym; Just in case, you know?

As it turned out, I was in preterm labor and, before I had much time to think, the nurses put me on a magnesium sulfate drip and then saline, shot me up with steroids for baby's lungs, and hurried me off to the nearest NICU via ambulance. I'm sure glad I stopped in before going to the gym!

Seriously, listen to your body. Everyone has a different level of pain tolerance. As a first-time mom, I didn't know what type of contractions I would feel when baby was really serious about coming. Personally, the "knock-you-to-the-floor" style contractions didn't show up until 5 hours before E was born.

You Are Unique!

Just because you are a FTM (first-time mom) doesn't mean you will make it to 40+ weeks.

It doesn't mean you will have a super long and crazy labor.

Just because your mom had a natural birth doesn't mean you will be able to.

And just because your coworker wanted an epidural doesn't mean you have to have one!

If one woman couldn't run at 34 weeks pregnant, that doesn't mean you won't be able to run throughout your pregnancy.

Because I am an active person and my baby arrived early doesn't mean exercise causes premature birth or that it will happen to you.

Below is a thought from a post I wrote back in August and it applies, not just to childbirth, but to womanhood, motherhood, and just plain old life.

"I find it ironic that a simple pair of jeans is manufactured in different sizes, lengths, and styles to adjust for women’s unique bodies, yet for childbirth, we are all supposed to fit in the “standard” procedures."

God made each one of us unique; each woman's experience with pregnancy and childbirth is different. Pray, listen to Him, and do what is right for your baby and your body. Wouldn't life be boring if we were all the same?

Have a Flexible Birth Plan

It's great to be prepared and have a birth plan, but don't have it set in stone.

Labor and delivery with E went really fast and it helped immensely that Leo and I had talked about "the plan" prior to the start of labor. For some reason, I was having a hard time thinking very clearly through the more powerful contractions! Strange, huh? When we told the nurse I didn't want any pain medication, she gave me a funny look initially, warned me when it was the "last call" for an epidural, and that was it. I was thankful that the nurse and our doctor respected our decision.

When I say you shouldn't have a birth plan "set in stone", I mean don't set yourself up for disappointment if things don't go as planned. If God blesses us with more babies, I always want to have a basic birth plan established before I'm in labor. BUT, if things don't go as planned, I don't want to feel like I've somehow "failed". In the end, who cares if you had a natural birth, a cesarean, or a if you were screaming for an epidural the day you hit 40 weeks!

Your baby really doesn't care how you brought him or her into this world! Yes, there is research that says there are benefits to natural childbirth but I'm not going there right now. What matters more is how you take care of your baby now. In all reality, how much time do you spend thinking about your own birth?! I don't even know what time I was born at! Those are the precious details only moms (and sometimes dads) remember :)

Assemble a Postpartum Support Team

I am forever thankful for my supportive husband and for my mom who took time off work to help me after E was born. Leo and I are blessed with great friends and relatives and church family who stopped in to visit, bought us groceries (AWESOME), and made us meals.

Being at home with a newborn scared me to death! Fortunately, other moms from our church told me it gets better after the first 2 weeks. That was my motivation; survival mode until the two week mark. I had no idea how hard on my emotions postpartum would be. Physically, I recovered quickly, but mentally, emotionally, and hormonally I was a basketcase! I don't consider myself to be overly emotional but I was in tears DAILY! What stumped Leo was that I didn't even know why I was crying. Ahh... the joy of being a woman! (BUT babies are so worth the night sweats, random crying, and breastfeeding hormone roller coasters).

Rely on God for your strength; He knows what you need. He surrounded Leo, E, and me with the exact support we needed. Just having company and going to Bible study helped immensely! Those moms were totally right; it does get better after the second week. And then it just keeps getting better... and better... and better.

After Baby Arrives, You Know Your Baby Best

Here you are with your first baby-baby EVER. Before E, I had "mothered" many babies, but nothing like this. My horses were my babies; my miniature weiner dog was my baby; my barn cats were my babies. But as a first-time mom to a human baby, I felt such a strong, amazing connection to this little boy.

As a first-time mom, you more than likely worry more often than veteran moms, but that's okay. Maybe you call your doctor over silly things or Google too many symptoms; you just care about that little bundle of joy! It isn't good to freak out when your baby just has the sniffles, but if you really sense something isn't right with your baby, get it checked out. Worst case scenario? Baby checks out just fine and the doctor shrugs and says, "This must be your first baby." At least you have the peace of mind knowing it isn't something more serious.

Every Mother Was Once a First-Timer

The next time someone calls you out on being a first-timer, just remember, they were once a FTM, too. You live and you learn; the best we can do is just humbly accept the title.

I probably worry a little too much about E's low iron and hemoglobin levels. Maybe I'm a bit too concerned about him refusing to eat solid foods when he's teething. I shouldn't be such a sucker for his sniffling and coughing while he's battling a simple cold.

This kid is too much fun!

Yes, I am a first-time mom and it rocks. It means God has blessed me with the honor of being a mom! I pray that He blesses us with many more, but everyone has to start somewhere :)

Monday, January 20, 2014

Every stride is taken in faith
Every step compelled by Your grace
We're taking up our cross
No matter what the cost
We give it all to go Your way
We're never gonna stop
"Running" by Hillsong United --- I love this song!

This morning I went for a run without feeling nauseous or faint! Awesome, huh? The Choco-Chip muffins must have cured me. Having a treadmill at home has been very handy because I can fit a workout in during E's morning nap. Running outside is rarely dull because the scenery changes and fresh air feels awesome (when it's not freezing your face off). Now treadmills, on the other hand, have a reputation of being a bit boring and monotonous after so many miles.

To avoid getting bored on the treadmill, I do a variety of speed and hill interval workouts. Here is the 30-minute workout I did this morning to ease back into things - incline percent grades aren't included, but I will take not of them in the future.

Low Iron Man

Now that I am healthy, E is slowly getting better but does still have a gunky cough and runny nose. And now Leo is getting sick... E and I took a road trip today to pick up his iron supplement prescription. The doctor reported to us last week that his hemoglobin and iron are both low, so I'm now referring to him as my "Low Iron Man". Between lots of prayer, the iron supplement, and baby cereals/meats, I hope E's recovery is a quick one!

E and I saw a "sun dog" on the way to the pharmacy today. To make this educational, a sun dog is another name for a "parhelion". It's a bright spot in the sky appearing on either side of the sun, formed by refraction of sunlight through ice crystals high in the earth's atmosphere. (thank you, Google ;)

Prayer First

In E's iron situation and in whatever else life sends our way, I need to resort to prayer FIRST not last! As I'm on my 2014 journey to be a prayer warrior, I'm reminding myself of James 5:16. Sometimes I feel like God doesn't hear my prayers or that I'm just not "doing it right". Those are lies from Satan... as usual. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective! We just need to be persistent and bold with our prayers.
Persistence and boldness require a ton of self-discipline for me. But I need to pray and not give up. My persistence in prayer needs to be like the Hillsong United lyrics say, "We're never gonna stop!"

James 5:16

Well, I'm off to make a homemade venison steak pizza. We'll see how this goes!

Treadmills: Love 'em or hate 'em? Or maybe love/hate?Does prayer come easy to you or has it required a lot of self-discipline?How are your New Year's resolutions going so far?

Thursday, January 16, 2014

Ah, how I love winter. As I looked out the window yesterday, there was a whole lot of white stuff flying around in the 35 mph winds. On the bright side, it was +5°F! The wind makes it less enjoyable, but at least it isn't -34°F anymore.

Aside from blizzards, another requirement of the winter season is getting sick two or three times, and yesterday just happened to be my day! I had been hit with a fever of 101°F and had that headachey, hungry-but-nothing-tastes-good, dizzy sort of feeling. Needless to say, I wasn't going to workout or power clean. I could tell something was up on my run earlier this week. My heart rate was quite a bit higher than usual.

To brighten up the blizzard-y sick day, E and I baked muffins and read... a lot! Don't worry, I washed my hands a few extra times while baking since I was sick and all :) We read a few different baby books and I finished reading "Approval Addiction: Overcoming Your Need to Please Everyone" by Joyce Meyer. Baking and reading with Mr. E made the day much more enjoyable. Here are a few pictures from our baking adventure:

While Leo and I were testing out the muffins, E decided he wanted to try some, too. He liked them so much I made a special "baby-friendly" batch for him. Hope you are staying warm this cold wintery week!

The muffin, enjoying it's last few seconds of life before E attacked it.

E got to play with the whole muffin for a bit before I tore it into bite-sized pieces.

Monday, January 13, 2014

Gracious words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones. PROVERBS 16:24

Generally, any stories I bring back from Walmart aren't too positive or inspiring, but today was really something. Lately, I had been feeling discouraged as a stay-at-home mom and have been feeling like somehow it's "not enough" to just be a mom. Maybe I should take on more design work... look for a part-time job... try to get busier somehow. When my logic returns to me, I realized what a ridiculous lie this is from Satan! Yet, it still gets me down from time to time. Society glorifies "busy-ness", careers, money, material things, etc. Motherhood and family? Not so much.

After a relatively unpleasant doctor appointment for Eli (2 shots and a difficult blood draw), we went to get groceries at Walmart. While in the checkout line, Eli was putting on a show for the elderly woman behind us and that sparked a conversation. He's such a flirt! We talked about how wonderful babies are and she told me, "They grow up too fast but it's a good thing. If they weren't growing at all, you would have another problem on your hands!"

The woman was very witty and had so much wisdom to share with me. She had raised six children of her own and even had her own great-grandbabies around now. Best of all, she knew the Lord and trusted Him for everything in her life.

What she said next really floored me. It wasn't one of the usual remarks... "Don't you get bored?" "What do you do all day?" "Are you looking for a job?"

She took a look at Eli and said, "I really wish you girls would stay home with your children these days. They grow up way too fast and you have the rest of your life to work out of the home. You can live on much less than you think you need."

I told her I do stay at home with my son but I'm new on the job. My heart filled with joy to hear positive affirmation about this huge life change for my family and I. Man's approval is not our goal as Christians, but a kind word is truly not just day-altering, but life-altering. It's hard to let go of all the negative words people say, so we should really treasure the positive words from others even more. That's why I'm writing this right now! I want to encourage others and be more sensitive to the Holy Spirit's leading.

This woman has no idea of the impact she had on me today! Her words were true to Proverbs 16:24; sweet to my soul and healing to my bones.

I'm thankful for...

Such tortuously boring days at home with Eli :) This boy knows how to have fun!

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Here's a product review: YakTrax are AMAZING! Some of the streets I run on are glare ice right now and I experienced 0% slippage to the grippy coils in this babies. I definitely recommend them to anyone who lives in northern regions where ice is present over half of the year!

While I'm at it, here's another product review. My husband is absolutely amazing and knew the perfect gift to get his wife: A TREADMILL! He even tried to surprise me, but I do have a solid reputation of being impossible to surprise. And, one more brag on Leo, he let me keep my treadmill in the corner of his "Man Cave"! What a great guy.

This morning was a balmy -34°F and I was happily running along in a tank top and shorts. I'm ridiculously excited :) When the weather is perhaps a +20°F, I will venture outside to use my YakTrax again.

Race number decor - I save all of my marathon numbers, minus the far left number. "47" was the first actual race I ever ran in 2009 - how nostalgic! I need to run about a million more marathons to fill up that wall.

Mr. E is obsessed with the treadmill.

Leo was ecstatic to win the "Husband of the Year" award for 2013 ;)

Why It's Good I Love To Run...

Because I love carbs and could live off lefse. That's a slight exaggeration because I would definitely end up with malnutrition! My mom and I made lefse for the first time together this Christmas and it was a blast. Here's the recipe and a few action shots:

Lefse

8 cups riced cooked potatoes

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup cream

1 Tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup flour (less flour the better)

My mom's wonderful job of peeling and boiling the potatoes!

Ricing the potatoes

Add the remaining ingredients to the riced potatoes and mix.

Rolling out the lefse mix with the textured rolling pin

Cooking 'em up!

Cooling the lefse

And the best part: Inhaling it! I think my sis-in-law enjoyed it :) Add butter and sugar, unless they're fresh off the grill. Fresh lefse is delicious plain!

Do you have any random product reviews to report today?How much do you love lefse?!

Monday, January 6, 2014

Okay, this is the last guest post for a little while, really! They've been on a roll lately. Here is a post I wrote at the "For Two Fitness" blog.

Check out New Motherhood and How to Train for a Marathon Post-Baby!

"Exercise and the active lifestyle are just part of who I am. When my husband and I found out we were expecting our first baby, we were ecstatic and a million questions raced through my mind. Could I exercise while I was pregnant? Does motherhood mean I won’t have time to exercise? Was this baby going to change my life forever? How could I train for a marathon post-baby?

In the first 5k I ever entered, a fellow woman runner yelled to me, “You won’t be running like that after you have kids!” Well, now I couldn’t agree with her more. Since my first 5k, I’m running faster and farther. If anything, being a mom makes you stronger! Having our son has drastically changed my husband’s and my life, but definitely for the better.

Friday, January 3, 2014

2013 flew by so fast, I'm enjoying reminiscing at bit at all that happened this year. This was a big year for our family and, of course, for E! Being born is a pretty big deal :) I'm excited to see what God has in store for 2014!

Five Revelations from 2013

God's approval is all I need.
It is impossible to please everyone and no matter what you do there will always be at least one person who disapproves! Recently, God has been showing me that I need to get over my approval-addicted nature. God wants us to live by the guidance of the Holy Spirit, not by the pressure and/or manipulation from other people.

Being a mom is truly amazing. While I was pregnant, I worried that I wouldn't love my baby enough and that I just wouldn't be a good mom. That's not a concern of mine anymore! Despite my lack of baby experience before having E (I had never changed a diaper before!?), being a mom comes naturally. I'm thankful for all of the more experienced moms I can go to for advice. I definitely don't know what I'm doing all the time, but I know God made me to be a mom!

Mr. E was busy brewing at the end of February. Seems like so long ago!

I don't think I could love this kid any more! I'm crazy about him.

Cloth diapering isn't rocket science. It's weird to say I actually enjoy cloth diapering. A very generous friend gave me some of her cloth diapers and I figured it was worth a shot. Now I love cloth diapering and it's definitely worth the savings and hardly any extra work!

The start of my cloth diaper collection!

Being a SAHM is worth the sacrifice. This was one of the biggest stretches of my life. Never in a million years would I have thought I would be a stay-at-home mom (or that I would have a blog!). Leaving my job (and my friends), moving to a new town, and living on one income was an intimidating whirlwind of change, but it's all worth it. God led me to leave my comfort zone and spending this time with my son has been worth any "sacrifices", tenfold.

If something is a priority, you make time for it. The picture the world sometimes paints of parenthood is that it is the end to all "fun" and you won't have time to do anything for yourself. You CAN make time to read your Bible everyday, to exercise everyday, to journal, to (fill in the blank)...

Motherhood has taught me new lessons in time management. I need to read the Bible and do devotionals in the morning before E wakes up or wait for nap time. Fitting in exercise everyday just means being flexible schedule-wise; if it doesn't happen in the morning, I sneak out for a run when Leo is home. Sure, one could say, "That's easy, you only have one baby right now!", and my response to that would be God strengthens us in each season of life. If He blesses my husband and I with more children, I trust that the Lord will give me wisdom for that season!

It's hard to get out the door some days, but I never regret exercising.

Five Resolutions for 2014

Be a prayer warrior. You can't be "bad" at praying, but I do want to be more dedicated to prayer. I made an index card of daily prayer requests and am going to focus on starting the day out with prayer and time with God! We're especially praying that God blesses us with Baby #2 in His perfect timing :)

Get CrossFit. Ha! I don't even know what that means, but I want to try it. One slight problem is that my "home gym" consists of a yoga mat and two 10-lb. weights, so I'm going to use my imagination (or just my body weight) in this. Running is my favorite, but this winter has been unhealthily cold and I'm trying to expand my knowledge of cross training! Below is a workout from the "Naptime Circuit Training" series. These workouts aren't official CrossFit routines, they are just a quick way to fit strength training into the day - a little strength training is better than none!

Read more. I read my Bible every day, but I'm looking to do more supplemental reading as time allows. Currently I'm reading "Approval Addiction" by Joyce Meyer and I've got my sights set on reading a couple books by Will Davis Jr. after that. Reading is really enjoyable and I want to encourage E to be a reader, too.

"Enough" by Will Davis Jr. (photo from Amazon.com)

Make more visual arts and crafts. Graphic design is great, but it requires a lot of computer time these days. I want to go back to the visual art-side of things and start making crafts with E. I made a few Christmas gifts this year and found that I really miss painting. Doing crafts with a 10-month-old probably means me making something pretty and him destroying it, but that's okay :)

Christmas Crafting

Be God-confident. I'm insecure; always have been, don't want to be forever. The fix for insecurity isn't in self-confidence, but being confident in God and seeing myself how He sees me. No more negative self talk and listening to Satan's lies. I have a distorted view that God is always mad and disappointed with me and it seems guilt is always lurking. The solution? Knowing and constantly reminding myself that Jesus is my Savior, meditating on God's Truth, and knowing that guilt is not from God.

Happy 2014 from us!

What have been your revelations over this past year? What are your resolutions for the new year?